ROCHESTER — Dominic Paradis knew his 1,000th career point was going to come. In typical, cool, calm Paradis fashion, he wasn’t going to rush it.

The 6-foot-5 senior forward reached the milestone Tuesday in a big Spaulding High School boys basketball 63-51 win at home against Merrimack, hitting the first of two foul shots with 37.7 seconds to play to hit 1,000 on the nose.

“It was on my mind, but I was going to let the game come to me,” Paradis said of the milestone point. “I knew it was going to come. I wasn’t going to force anything. We needed to get the win first. And it came, so I’m pretty happy about that.”

Paradis ended the game with a team-high 17 points, including 11 of 11 from the foul line and 13 points in the second half. It was the Red Raiders’ (12-3) biggest win to date, dropping the defending Division I champs to 11-5. The Tomahawks knocked Spaulding out of last year’s tournament in the semifinals.

Although it was a big point night for Paradis, the Red Raiders won the game at the defensive end. They led 30-17 at the half and never let Merrimack get closer than eight in the second half.

“They were really packing it in,” said Merrimack coach Tim Goodridge. “They were really bothering Gendron and their weak side help was (effective). ... And we gave them too many second looks. I thought we played pretty good D, but we didn’t rebound the basketball and they were getting second and third shots. That enabled them to get that 13-point lead.”

Tomahawk star Eric Gendron netted a game-high 26 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter when Merrimack made its run.

But Gendron couldn’t get untracked in the opening half, scoring just five points as Spaulding’s defense forced the Merrimack star into a variety of tough shots that wouldn’t fall.

Spaulding got the lead to 17 (42-25) in the third quarter after an inside hoop by sophomore Anthony Ciccotelli, who scored 12 points off the bench.

Merrimack whittled it to 11 by the end of the quarter (45-34) on two Gendron free throws and Brandon Malloch’s inside bucket.

The Red Raiders started the fourth quarter on n 8-0 run, getting four points from Paradis, who scored 10 points in the last quarter.

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Whaley/Democrat photo
Spaulding coach Tim Cronin presented senior Dominic Paradis with a basketball for scoring his 1,000th career point Tuesday against Merrimack.

He had just four points at the half, all on free throws, sitting a good portion with two fouls.

His fourth trey completed a 13-2 run to cut the Red Raiders’ lead to 55-47 with 1:54 to play.

Enter Paradis, who scored his team’s next six points to cool off Merrimack’s surge. His inside bucket gave him 13 points, He followed with two free throws with 53.4 seconds to play to rise to 15 points and a 999 total, and then calmly hit the milestone point from the foul line.

Paradis is the first Red Raider boy to reach the 1,000-point mark since Luke Croteau did so in 2007.

The senior forward was mobbed on the court by his teammates, getting plenty of hugs and chest bumps before action resumed.

“We really picked it up defensively and had a lot of energy this game,” Paradis said. “We’ve got to keep that spirit up, that pride, the rest of the way.”

Fifteen seconds later senior teammate Alex Gray, all 5-10 of him, ended the win with an exclamation point, dunking the ball from the left side to finish off a press break set to bring the partisan Spaulding crowd to its feet once again.

Gray said it was the “Go” play where he gets a pick near half court and then breaks for the basket.

“I told my guys if you hit me with a pass I’ve going to try and dunk it,” Gray said. “And then it happened. ... It was crazy. It was like a game-winner almost with those two added together.”

“That was something,” said Spaulding coach Tim Cronin with a smile. “That’s the Go play and he goes. But you have to play to win at the end of the game. Even though they’re coming back, don’t go into a stall. Play to win.”

The Red Raiders finish the season up with three tough games. They host 11-4 Bishop Guertin Friday, and then travel to Nashua South (12-3) and Manchester Memorial (11-3) next week. To finish in the top four, they will likely need to win two of three.

“We hadn’t beaten one of the teams near the top, so that’s why this was a big win for us,” Cronin added, whose team had lost two of three coming in. “I thought the defense was excellent, I really do. We stressed that all week long. I thought our defense let us down at Salem (62-58 loss last week). We got back to defensive basics.” Spaulding, 63-51